Develop Leaders in At-Risk Communities, Costa Rica

It has now been nearly two decades since El Nino y la Bola/Boy With a Ball Costa Rica began its work in the El Triangulo squatter's settlement or "precario." It has been five years since El Triangulo was flattened to make room for a highway after the residents there had grown so much, in part due to Love Your City, that many had risen out of the neighborhood, out of poverty to find homes of their home.  

With El Triangulo gone, the organization turned their whole attention to the larger Los Cuadros precario with more than 10,000 residents and a tough reputation.  Boy With a Ball team members flow each week into the community on Saturdays to conduct Love Your City neighborhood walkthroughs in which dozens of volunteers and team members go door to door to build relationships with each community member.  These conversations become friendships which leverage an approach called Appreciative Inquiry to learn what each family is facing and the challenges and strengths young people are experiencing as they pursue graduating from high school on the way to reaching their dreams.  Within Los Cuadros,  this work has produced close to a dozen different programs including ESL classes, a tutoring center, a leaders group and more.  

Each group leads to growth and together - the team, the volunteers and the community members - are growing together, helping one another to rise out of poverty and to grow healthy lives, healthy families and healthy futures.

Thank you so much for your part in all of this.  This effort involves those who will go out into the Los Cuadros community teaming with those, like yourself, who will give to make this work possible.  As a result, everyone grows.  We look forward to seeing Love Your City scale deeper and deeper across Los Cuadros and then to other neighborhoods across San Jose.  Together, we can help thousands of young people go beyond the corrugated tin walls of their shanties to become leaders who turn and help others rise as well. 

Links:

• The Slum That Rose Out of Poverty
• Love Your City: The Boy With a Ball Story